QZAP - QZAP - The Queer Zine Archive Project

Leche Podrida Para Disfrutar

March 6, 2025March 7, 2025QZAP

Mala Leche Vol. 1, curated and edited by Eduardo Aparicio and Herculito Tropical, published February 1992 is zine from Chicago dripping in excess of satire and authentic latine queer play. In this fully Spanish resvista antiestica, “antiaesthetic magazine,” unfolds a collection of writings that enraptured me in nostalgia and warmth of the kind of queer exchange that occurs in latine kinship. A mixture of confessionals, stories, cultural analysis, an avant-garde interview, lesbianfied reworked novels, and your monthly horoscope. I could walk you through the marvels of these slaps in the face that leave you grinning with a red mark on your face or I could simply translate for you. We have the opening statement:

“What does “BAD MILK” mean? MALA LECHE* is a discursive violence. It is that discourse reduced to a monologue that wants to be made heard. It’s what comes out of us because if it doesn’t, we explode. Our mission is to express our vision of actuality with a squirt of MALA LECHE. Signed: Eduardo Aparicio and Herculito Tropical.”

*Leche (milk) is a common slang for semen, cum, and various sexual secretions. So this leche? Has gone baddddd…

The first story is titled Mi primero experencia, “My first experience,” by Erudito Alavio Leta. Details snapshots of first queer experiences and moments from when they were a young boy and “multiplying experiences.” Small windows of his experiences as a young gay man, moments that seem that have stuck to him like glue. One as young as 8 years old: “I still remember the sensation leaving with slippery cheeks.” Sincere in tone, these stories amounted to the specific experience of working at a clothing store in the luxury women’s clothing section. A male client who he was familiar with came in one day to shop “for” his wife and asked to try on the dresses himself in front of Erudito.

El cogio un vestido, se fue al cuarto de pruebas y salía sin zapatos, con las patasas todas pelúas, caminando como si tuviera tacones bien altos, paseandose por delante de los espejos, mirándose por delante y por detrás, que ni Bette Davis le hacía la competencia.

“He grabbed a dress, and went to the dressing room and left without shoes, with totally hairy steps, walking as if with very high heels, strolling in front of the mirrors, looking at himself from the front and from behind, not even Bette Davis could compete.”

Ultimately we are left in a cliffhanger: ¿Qué influencia tuvo esto en mi? En la próxima les contaré. “What influence did this have on me? In the next one, I will tell you all.” We are left wondering if this exchange continued, if not then how does Erudito walk away after this?

The following story titled COMIENDO MIERDA DESDE TEMPRANO, “EATING SHIT SINCE EARLY” by Mochito Cienfuegos, also leaves us an accidental cliffhanger. The story is missing its final page, but we are left at the beginning of a raunchy detailing of a night out at “AN ULTIMATE LEATHER BAR.” Mochito addresses the shiteaters directly, that may be the reader: you, me, us; or someone else entirely. The aggressive warm, from the heat of the branding iron they have as teeth, welcome they give us in the dedication tells us all:

Estos versos escotológicos y comemierda se los dedico o los que en un momento u otro se me han cagado en la madre. Con sentimiento y sabor caguense en lo suyo.

“I dedicate to you all these scotological and shit-eating verses or to those that in one moment or the other have shat on their mother. With sentiment and taste, shit on yourselves.”

The teeth of this tone leaves you with (skid?)marks all over your body, slightly infectious too since it is definitely not sanitary, but you leave with a smile of laughter because you liked it.

The following section told me how truly this zine was made by Latines for Latines. Because if it was by and for anyone else it would make me question how the hell they got this niche information from! And what is that information? That circumcision is an unheard-of practice in Latinoamerica… which leads to this highly specific investigation on classifieds. ¿Quién es esa persona que te busca? “Who is that person that searches for you?” by Cheito Chupaman is an uncovering of advertisements and announcements that have been received by Mala Leche to distribute to the community classified style. This “report” starts with a “personal classified” that was sent to Mala Leche specifically about a white American in search of a “serious and affectionate Hispanic man.” hand written text block in spanish

This leads to a question of these types of classifieds. Chupamán searches and finds examples of these types of classifieds in various magazines.

Se me ocurre preguntarme si los gays estadounidenses que leen es tas publicaciones consideran que estas tienen lectores latinos que encontraran esos anuncios. A continuación te informo dónde fue que encontre anuncios de hombres que buscan latinos y te doy algunos ejemplos, para que tengas una idea.

“It occured me to ask myself if American gays that read these publications consider that they have latino readers that finds these announcements. Following I inform you where did I find these announcements of men looking for latinos and give you examples, so you have an idea.”

personal ads

To much of my amusement, the conclusion to this incessant search for latino men by american gays is that latino gays are not circumcised so: Muchos de estos hombres sienten una fascinación por hombres que no sufrieron esta operación al nacer. “Many of these men feel a fascination for men that did not suffer this operation at birth.”

Following this, we have a switch-up to an anti-academic visual culture essay analyzing the convergence and queer dialectic exchange between a billboard advertisement and graffiti surrounding it. Los languages de violencia, “The Languages of Violences” by una chica de Puerto Rico que ama a otra chica, “a girl from Puerto Rico that loves another girl” is an extremely intelligent and riveting queer theoretical essay using this image as a point of origin:

La imagen que tenemos a nuestra vista es, entonces, la de una tensión que supera las dinámicas internas del cartel. El cartel invita a la transgresión pero opera desde una impostura. Mientras el graffito es en efecto la expresión de una letra que circula por el espacio de lo ilegal y lo prohibido, el cartel delimita con severidad su inclusión dentro de la ley.

“Then, the image that we have in our view is one of tension that surpasses the dynamics inside the billboard. The billboard invites a transgression but operates from an imposture. While the graffiti is effectively the expression of a letter circulating through the space of illegality and the prohibited, the billboard severely delimits its inclusion inside the law.”

She details how the graffiti and the billboard are in conversation, the wall being a space of metaphor for this play. She materializes in full animacy the graffiti, the wall, and the billboard. The power to enlarge the gaze of the viewer to understand the dialectic exchanges occurring queers the gaze towards this conversation, passing beyond the legal bounds of marketing.

El cartel, impenitente, abraza al graffito como a un hermano, cual un Judas, insistiéndole participar en la orgia de violencia y poder en la que soñandamente se homologan. Sin un dejo de compasión, le urge imperativamente que desvista a ese cuerpo inerte, a ese cuerpo sin voluntad propia, a ese cuerpo cifra de su poder, a ese cuerpo que le permitira saborear uno y cada uno de esos falitos erectos que se avisoran en la cajetilla ya abierta. Le urge que desgarre esa resistencia aparente, que se imponga sobre ese metal que cede ante la imponente voluntad de un dedo. Esa cosa/caja femenina que es sólo un pretexto y nada mas. Que desvista a esa cosa femenina. A esa cosa femenina.

“The billboard, impenitent, embraces the graffiti like a brother, like a Judas, insisting participation in the orgy of violence and power in which they dream of homologating themselves. Without a hint of compassion, urges him imperatively to undress that inert body, that body without any will of its own, that body that is the cipher of his power, that body that will allow him to savor each and every one of those erect phalluses that can be glimpsed in the already opened pack. Urging to tear that apparent resistance, to impose on that metal that yields to the imposing will of a finger. That feminine thing/box that is only a pretext and nothing more. To undress that feminine thing. That feminine thing.”

There is a strong eroticism to the exchange of seduction past the limits of gender, in the transgression of objects past their subjection. The graffiti is part of the announcement navigating past the lines of dress and undress, simulating fragmented and unfragmented lines of legality and gender. Announcing the tempting act of undressing, a feminine act, a phallus object of the cigarette, not only announces loudly the transgression of gender but does so by animating an object, inherently a queering: to humanize the sentient subject that has become dehumanized. Through the scope of enlarging and transsizing the viewer’s gaze to observe past lines of legality to a dialectical method of transgression. This small but transizable essay by A Girl From Puerto Rico That Loves Another Girl* is poetic and nasty in its intelligence. An invigorating read and leaves you sullied in its chokehold of argument. This essay left me in a state of electricity, in it capacity to witness through a language of a caliber that is high-intellect but anti-academic, inspiring in its unwavering poeticism but grounded in quotidian queer language.

*Si me escuchas, chica de Puerto Rico que ama a otra chica: buscame. Al menos una amistad, te ruego.

Circulating back to parts of this zine that are under the category that amazed me in its particularity of inner community specifics. This blog post is not an analysis or criticism of the dynamics of immigrants by any means, nor do I mean to start a diaspora war Olympics, but it is a fresh air to be reading something made in the U.S. that feels like something that did not have the U.S. in mind as part of its audience even though it was made in Chicago. This is rare. We immigrants, and many of those who have been here for a long time and/or past generations, tend to subscribe to living under the gaze of whiteness and Americanness to be able to be understood. I am not immune to this: out of survival we learn to code switch, only pay attention, and make known and salient parts of our culture, voice, and way of being, that white people already know or are comfortable with. Not erase but we simply do not water the particularities of ourselves, the untranslatable parts. This zine is littered and glittered with specifics that I could never translate for you, and I would be lying if I said that doesn’t make me happy. To read something that reminds me of home, but in a queer way?! Ways of being that go past slang, ways of song that are innately part of the way we speak. Even simple and small things like the difference between American versus Estadounidense. In Latinoamerica, we do not call people from the U.S. “American” because “America” is also Latin-america. We use “estadounidense” because that is the name of this country, is it not? I have always found it incredibly ironic and telling on the centrism of this country that there is not even an English word to refer to “estadounidense,” only “American.” That is nothing here nor there but even Spanish writing in the U.S., I have seen this exactly translated! To “Americano” instead of “estadounidense”… small things like that tell me your audience is only within the borders of this country to be able to understand this. This zine is very evident, from the first couple of pages, that is not this. I know this was all done in the affect and mindset of us by us for us. The following section is the most evident and beautiful transgression of this though.

The first couple of pages of Tetas Postizas, “Artificial Tits” by Herculito Tropical, is an interview with Kitty, whom I assume is a transformista and/or drag queen. I say assume because the first couple of pages are missing, but somehow this accidental mishap adds to the boundless close culture practice of it all. I will not be translating the entirety of the interview because it is antithetical to the most wondrous thing about it: its untranslatability.

interview text block

Kitty is from Ecuador but grew up in Puerto Rico and is detailing her life as a transformista in the U.S., starting off by saying she wants to give back to her community with competitions such as “Miss Gay Latina International”, “Miss Northside”, “Miss Hispanidad”, and “Miss Southside.” She is talking about her life, childhood, future, hopes, likes, dislikes, and even love life.

Antes eramos muchachos que nos quitabamos la peluca, los brazieres, y ese era el termino del espectaculo de todo transformista. Ahora tu sabes que no, que hay el silicon, hay la hormona, hay el cache, la bisturí, las jaladas de los pellejos, tu sabes…
“We were guys before that would take our wigs off, our bras, and there would end the spectacle of everything transformista [even this context: drag, but could mean trans]. Now you know that isn’t the case, there is silicone, there’s hormones, there’s the cache, the scalpel, the skin tuck, you know…”

The conversation is very comfortable and fluid, and innately Caribbean. She ends with a beautiful note that speaks to many queer Caribeños, including myself:

“Well I haven’t mentioned it, but in the future, maybe in 92’, this year I hope to open my own place. First, I believe in God; secondly, in my father Obatalá, and my mother Ochún. If they give it to me, what I want this year, I will open a transformista club for Latinos.”

In the Caribbean, God is… God but in conversation with the seven potencias, Kitty highlights two: Yoruba Orishas Obatalá of creation and Ochún of water and fertility. Being in the archive and reading the hopes and ideas of the future by people in these zines makes me feel like they are in conversation with me. I hold the heavy weight of representing the future for them as I stand in the present they speak of in futurity. I do not know if this came to fruition, if they granted the club to Kitty, but I hope so dearly.

Aside from the wonderful actual text and narrative of this interview, what is so enlightening is the interview questions themselves. If you haven’t noticed you can see that Herculito (Little Hercules but also a pun for “Her-little ass”) says questions such as “¿Blablablá, bablá?”, “¿Fuiqui fuiqui cucú?”, “¿Fifí fofó o fufú?” This could be read as a gag and a subversion of interview questions, simply making fun of interview styles and queering it all. Maybe they did use questions with formal and clear sentences and then switched them out to these fun alternative questions. However, I believe differently. Latinos, especially in the Caribbean speak often in sounds. I frankly don’t have many ways to explain it other than it is highly contextual and musical sounds that can be understood in colloquial conversation but are untranslatable. The equivalent of humming sounds that indicate “yes” or “no” but instead with full onomatopoeia sentences that are sung in conversation can mean full moods, opinions, directions, thoughts, emotions, etc. Orchestrated on actual sound, rhythm, and application, showcasing their meaning. Granted this is not often written out because it is an overwhelmingly orally dependent tradition, but this interview changes that. Queers a Latino tradition by making it even more opaque on the page. You could argue that this was still in replacement of actual questions, but I would like to live in the fantasy of this conversation being comprised of this oral echo of culture. What adds to it is that it does make sense. Reading it out loud, those are the correct sounds for the types of sound-questions that were asked according to their answers.

Additionally, the phonic echos of this tropicalia elevate Kitty and her presence. The best interviews are those of conversation and exchange of kinship, where there is a vulnerability braided through the interchange of human connection rather than interrogation. The side of the blade that cuts in this case can be that then the interviewer can overpower the interviewee, at the end of the day I want to know about Kitty. By queering the interview style with a queering of these cultural phonic echos into the zine, Kitty’s words are heightened and bright by simultaneously still maintaining the affective presence of Herculito with the sound of his voice. She does not blend into the background but reigns on the throne constructed by the wounds of home. Everyone is present and sensorially opaque past and through a multiplicity of dimensions. And just like that, taquití táka tá.

illustration of a woman hiking up her skirt and showing her ankle

Lastly, we end in finales to magazines and newspapers that I deeply miss and should be brought back: horoscopes. In the camp and queer tradition of the beloved Walter Mercado, Doña Masas Los Guía y Los Revienta…, “Doña Masa Guides and Blow You Up…” is not your average astrological reading but a reading. This horoscope reading is provided to you by “The artificial satellites of Doña Masas and her ensemble ‘The Astrologists’”. This horoscope is messy, kitschy, shady, and more. Dripping in slang and particularities, it was everything and more to read. Doña Masas does not tell you what you want to hear but what will set you straight and leave your mouth agape. For example, Sagittarius:

text block

“Sagittarius: Generous, beautiful, the big whores of the Plaza [a pun, and also euphemism in this context for the streets], I mean, of the Zodiac. No other sign is more faggotty, more scatological… I mean, they talk and eat so much, but so much shit that they have continual verbal diarrhea. This month, not even an exaggerated dosage of Peptobismal saves y’all.”

I highly urge you to read your horoscope if you are Spanish-speaking and get some humbling laughs. I leave you in celebration of Aries season with this translation:

text block

“Aries: How are you all behaving, crazy spider women? Well, the truth is I don’t know because Jupiter is parked in front of Mercury and he, damn annoying, doesn’t let me see anything. Arieans are so gray, so uninteresting, that regardless, I don’t care.”

Valeria is interning at QZAP this semester. She is in her senior year at University of Wisconsin-Madison studying Gender & Women’s Studies. She was born and raised in Valencia, Venezuela and now lives in Teejop land (Madison, WI).

Menstruaciones No Binarias part 2: Interview with Rebeldia Menstrual and Eróticas Fluidas

February 6, 2025February 6, 2025QZAP

When I first came across Menstruaciones No Binarias, I was immediately struck by its depth, its urgency, and its commitment to dismantling the normative narratives surrounding menstruation. After writing about the zine in my last blog post, I knew I wanted to go further—to hear directly from the voices behind this work. In this post, I am honored to share an interview with Nachi of Rebeldía Menstrual and Andre of Eróticas Fluidas, the brilliant minds who collaborated to create this transformative text. Their insights shed light on the importance of reclaiming menstruation as a political act, the challenges of crafting inclusive language, and the ongoing fight for trans and nonbinary menstrual justice. Because language and accessibility are central to our shared mission, I have translated our conversation from Spanish to English while keeping both versions in this post. I hope that, through their words, you feel the same sense of empowerment, resistance, and possibility that this zine so powerfully conveys.

Menstruaciones no binarias

Valeria: Which key moment or experience motivated the creation of a zine that questions the binaries surrounding menstruation?

Nachi & Andre: The key experience that motivated us to create the zine was finding ourselves in the dilemma that the majority of the available materials about menstruation are made, thought of, and directed by and from ciswomen towards ciswomen, leading to aside all menstruating living experiences of sexual and gender dissidents. Finding ourselves with that profoundly essentialist, biologically deterministic, and cisheteronormative reality made us unite our projects and create this zine together.

V: Sexual health and menstrual experience are also mentioned as political acts in the zine. How do you both see this position’s impact on the fight for rights for trans and nonbinary people?

N & A: We think that the most significant impact is amplifying the vision that we understand for the rights of trans people beyond identity, together with the visualization that there are many possible experiences when we talk about menstruation and ovum-menstrual cycles. We say it is a political act due to permitting us to amplify the imagination about the possibilities of menstruation, particularly concerning people of different sexualities and/or genders.

V: The zine stands out for its inclusive and accessible language. How did you both confront the defiance to create material that could resonate with many identities and diverse experiences?

N & A: This was one of the purposes of creating the zine, amplifying the forms of access to the knowledge from our situated experience. That is how it converted itself to grand defiance with the language used since the exact intention is to amplify the experiences, not reduce them. Besides, we wrote the zine from our own sexual dissident voices, and this reveals a specific sensibility in the hour of investigation on how to choose to explain it and address the topics.

V: You talk of the pathologization of menstruation in medical and social discourse. What changes do you think are necessary in the health system to address menstruating experiences in a more inclusive manner?

N & A: Firstly, we think that the whole health system should be transformed, and that would implicate reformulating the notion of health/illness. If we specifically speak about the topic of menstruation, the topic of gender identities would be urgent. As such, in the professional health practices and the community actions of sexual health approach, but also in public politics that should repair within the lives of sexual and/or gender dissident people. If we dream of changes, we could talk about generating a vision of a comprehensive reality, not just bio-deterministic about people.

V: How do you both perceive the impact of international distribution networks in the diffusion of projects such as this zine? And what challenges or benefits do you consider that bring forth these global links?

N & A: In the case of distribution networks found in Chile, Mexico, and Argentina, having an impact that, through our own efforts, we couldn’t have achieved. There lies the importance of international networks to diffuse projects and trespassing borders. Part of the benefits has been having a larger impact on international communities, amplifying to readers the material and receiving feedback on contexts that aren’t our own, and then enriching the prior reflections of the publication.

V: The zine mixes with theory, personal experience, and practice. How did you balance these perspectives, and what role does each have in the final narrative of the zine?

N & A: We both made common contributions; we wanted to share information in an accessible form, which is typically in a very medical and academic language, and at the same time, share reflections on our own terms. We did the whole process of investigating, writing, and creating the zine together. Each of us indeed has expertise due to our professional and biographical journeys. Rebeldia Menstrual approaches the hormonal processes, the ovum-menstrual cycle, menstrual hygiene, and others from this project. Eróticas Fluidas approached the critical vision and the political position around sexual and affective education that we want to construct.

V: What are the origins of “Rebeldía Menstrual” and “Eróticas Fluidas”? From your experiences and perspectives, how did these personal projects surge? And what motivated you both to develop them?

Andre: Eróticas Fluidas surged in 2020 as a self-managed project where I sold sex toys and articles for sexual pleasure. This is how the focus quickly shifted towards autonomous research, the publication of zines, participation in podcasts, and the creation of various workshops related to sexual and emotional education from a sexually dissident and critical perspective. The motivation for developing the project was and continues to be deeply rooted in a strong conviction that erotic and epistemic justice lies within ourselves, and that through these lived experiences, we can reduce the harm that most sexually and/or gender-dissident people are exposed to.

Nachi: Rebeldía Menstrual has its origins in 2017, the same year I discovered the menstrual cup and was in my fourth year of studying Obstetrics. Reaching that point in my life and discovering how the menstrual cup was transforming my menstrual experience and the way I understood my vulva, vagina, uterus, and menstruation was a revelation. I thought, more people need to know about the menstrual cup and deserve to know themselves in this way. So, I created a page and started distributing menstrual cups. Through the internet and by participating in various fairs, I began selling cups. Over the years, I expanded to selling menstrual underwear, cloth pads, menstrual discs, and in recent years, even zines. From the very beginning, my goal was always to make information accessible to people. Selling products was just the excuse and a way to bring a bit of economic sustainability to the project.

V: Could you share more about the methodologies you use when creating your zines, from conceptualization to the final design, and how you integrate artistic creativity into the process?

N & A: Our methodology is quite artisanal and improvised; we don’t follow formal investigative design processes. Instead, we focused on making a critical compilation of the available material and developing our own ideas about what we wanted to express. This process took us about two years (and was carried out remotely due to the pandemic) to finalize the design virtually. During this time, the illustrator Alineandome joined the project to handle the layout and illustrations for the final zine. Artistic creativity is contributed by everyone involved in the project.

V: In addition to “Menstruaciones No Binarias”, what other projects have you been developing recently, and how do they relate to or expand on the topics covered in this zine?

N & A: We have dreamed of transforming the zine into a workshop, where we can engage in lived, experiential dialogue with people and share the information in other formats, not just through reading. This is a pending project that we hope to bring to life in the future.

V: Finally, what hopes do you have for this zine in the future? How do you envision its impact on international communities, especially in queer and non-binary spaces?

N & A: Our hopes for the zine are that it continues to travel through sexually and/or gender-dissident communities across the world wherever it can reach. This is why the material is open for distribution and available to be sold and shared by anyone who gets in touch with us.

∇Δ∇Δ∇Δ

Valeria: ¿Cuál fue el momento o experiencia clave que les motivó a crear un zine que cuestionara los binarismos en torno a la menstruación?

Nachi & Andre: La experiencia clave que nos motivó a crear el fanzine fue encontrarnos en la disyuntiva de que la mayoria de los materiales disponibles acerca de menstruación están hechos, pensados y dirigidos por y desde mujeres cis a mujeres cis, dejándo de lado toda la vivencia menstruante de las disidencias sexuales y de género. Encontrarnos con esta realidad profundamente esencialista, biologicista y heterocisnormada nos hizo unir nuestros proyectos y crear juntes este fanzine.

V: En el fanzine mencionan que la salud sexual y la experiencia menstruante son también actos políticos. ¿Cómo ven el impacto de este posicionamiento en la lucha por los derechos de personas trans y no binarias?

N & A: Creemos que el mayor impacto es ampliar la visión de lo que entendemos por los derechos de las personas trans y no binarias más allá de la identidad, junto con visibilizar que hay muchas experiencias posibles cuando hablamos de menstruación y ciclos óvulo-menstruales. Decimos que es un acto político ya que nos permite ampliar el imaginario acerca de las posibilidades de la menstruación, particularmente en relación a personas disidentes sexuales y/o de género.

V: El fanzine se destaca por su lenguaje inclusivo y accesible. ¿Cómo enfrentaron el desafío de crear un material que pudiera resonar con tantas identidades y experiencias diversas?

N & A: Este era uno de los propósitos al crear el fanzine, ampliar las formas de acceder al conocimiento desde nuestra experiencia situada. Así fue como se convirtió en un gran desafío lo del lenguaje usado, ya que justamente la intención es amplificar las experiencias, no reducirlas. Además, escribimos el fanzine desde nuestras propias voces disidentes sexuales y eso devela una sensibilidad específica a la hora de investigar y elegir cómo se explican y abordan los temas.

V: Hablan de la patologización de la menstruación en discursos médicos y sociales. ¿Qué cambios creen que son necesarios en los sistemas de salud para abordar de manera más inclusiva las experiencias menstruantes?

N & A: En principio creemos que todo el sistema de salud debería transformarse y eso implicaría reformular la noción de salud/enfermedad. Si hablamos específicamente del tema de la menstruación, serían urgentes los cambios en temáticas de identidades de género. Así como en las prácticas de los profesionales de salud, en las acciones comunitarias para el abordaje de la salud sexual, pero también en políticas públicas que reparen en las vidas de las personas disidentes sexuales y/o de género. Si soñamos con cambios, podríamos hablar de generar una visión que realmente sea integral y no sólo biologicista acerca de las personas.

V: ¿Cómo perciben el impacto de las redes de distribución internacionales en la difusión de proyectos como este zine, y qué retos o beneficios consideran que trae consigo este alcance global?

N & A: En este caso las redes de distribución se encuentran en Chile, México y Argentina, teniendo un impacto que por nuestro propio esfuerzo no lograríamos. Allí es donde radica la importancia de las redes internacionales para difundir los proyectos y que traspasen fronteras por sí solos. Parte de los beneficios ha sido tener impacto en comunidades internacionales, ampliar a les lectores del material y recibir retroalimentaciones de contextos que no son el nuestro y eso enriquece muchísimo las reflexiones posteriores a la publicación.

V: El zine mezcla teoría, experiencia personal y práctica. ¿Cómo equilibraron estas perspectivas y qué rol tuvo cada una en la narrativa final del fanzine?

N & A: Ambes hicimos aportaciones comunes, queríamos compartir información de una forma accesible, que normalmente está en un lenguaje muy médico y academicista y al mismo tiempo compartir reflexiones en nuestros propios términos. Si bien todo el proceso de investigación, escritura y creación del fanzine fue en conjunto, es cierto que cada une tiene su expertiz por su recorrido profesional y biográfico. Desde el proyecto Rebeldía Menstrual se aportó sobre los procesos hormonales, el ciclo óvulo-menstrual, la gestión menstrual, entre otros. Y desde el proyecto Eróticas Fluidas se aportó sobre la visión crítica y el posicionamiento político en torno a la educación sexual y afectiva que queremos construir.

V: ¿Cuáles son los orígenes de “Rebeldía Menstrual” y “Eróticas Fluidas”? ¿Cómo surgieron estos proyectos personales y qué los motivó a desarrollarlos desde sus experiencias y perspectivas?

Andre: Eróticas Fluidas surge en el 2020 como un proyecto autogestivo donde vendía juguetes sexuales y artículos para el placer sexual. Así fue como rápidamente el eje giró hacia la investigación autonóma, la publicación de fanzines, la participación en podcasts y la creación de diversos talleres relacionados a la educación sexual y afectiva con perspectiva disidente sexual y crítica. La motivación de desarrollar el proyecto tuvo y tiene que ver con una fuerte convicción de que la justicia erótica y epistémica está en nosotres mismes y que a través de esas vivencias podemos reducir el daño al que nos vemos expuestes la mayoría de personas disidentes sexuales y/o de género.

Nachi: Rebeldia Menstrual tiene sus inicios en el 2017, el mismo año en que descubrí la copa menstrual en mi vida y que estaba cursando 4 año de la carrera de Obstetricia, llegar a ese punto de mi vida y descubrir como la copa menstrual estaba transformando mi experiencia menstrual y la forma que tenía de conocer mi vulva, vagina, útero y menstruación fue una revelación, pensé que más personas tienen que conocer la copa y merecian conocerse así mismas, asi cree una página y comencé a distribuir copas menstruales, a través de internet o participando en distintas ferias comencé a vender copas, con los años llegué a vender calzones menstruales, toallas de tela, discos menstruales y también los fanzines estos últimos años. Mi objetivo desde un inicio siempre fue poder acercar la información a las personas, el vender productos era la excusa y la forma de poder darle un poco de sustentabilidad económica al proyecto.

V: ¿Podrían compartir más sobre las metodologías que emplean al crear sus fanzines, desde la conceptualización hasta el diseño final, y cómo integran la creatividad artística en el proceso?

N & A: Nuestra metodología es bastante artesanal e improvisada, no nos guíamos por diseños investigativos formales sino que fuimos más bien haciendo una recopilación crítica del material disponible y una elaboración propia acerca de lo que queríamos decir. Así fue como nos tomamos aproximadamente dos años (y a la distancia producto de la pandemia) en crear el diseño final de forma virtual y donde se sumó la ilustradora Alineandome para la diagramación e ilustraciones del fanzine final. La creatividad artística es propuesta por todas las personas involucradas en el proyecto.

V: Además de “Menstruaciones No Binarias”, ¿qué otros proyectos han estado desarrollando recientemente, y cómo se relacionan o expanden los temas tratados en este fanzine?

N & A: Hemos soñado en convertir el fanzine en un taller, donde podamos dialogar vivencialmente con las personas y abrir la información en otros formatos, no sólo de lectura. Este es un proyecto pendiente que esperamos llevar a cabo en el futuro.

V: Finalmente, ¿qué esperanzas tienen para este fanzine en el futuro? ¿Cómo visualizan su impacto en las comunidades internacionales, especialmente en espacios queer y no binarios?

N & A: Las esperanzas ligadas al fanzine es que siga viajando por comunidades disidentes sexuales y/o de género de todas las partes del mundo al que pueda llegar, es por esto que el material está abierto para distribución y disponible para ser vendido y difundido por cualquier persona que se ponga en contacto con nosotres.

World AIDS Day – 2024

December 1, 2024December 1, 2024QZAP

On this World AIDS Day I’m thinking about my deceased friends and the power of paper and toner. If there was a number one reason I started making zines in 1992 it was because I got involved with Milwaukee’s chapter of ACT UP. As a bebe queer activist who wanted to teach my peers about better sexual (and overall) health, one of the best ways to communicate in that pre-internet era was through print.

So we did. We made zines and handed out rubbers and flyers with instructions on how to put them on. We talked about sex, and we danced, and we shouted and we put up stickers and wheat pasted and danced more. And we zapped politicians, and pharmaceutical companies, and died in the streets and locked down in offices… and we danced. And some of us got older, and learned more about harm reduction, and intersectionality, and our queer history, and are able still to dance (sometimes, and maybe in different ways, and still…) And some of us didn’t.

Flyer from the 1992 RNC that says “150,000 Dead from AIDS. Stop This Monster” with picture of president George H.W. Bush. On any given day I mostly don’t care what my boss, or my family of origin and mishpucha, or a bunch of random fundie assholes think about me and what we’re doing here. But I do wonder what these ghosts would say. Would they be proud of us? These queer older siblings who would see that both science and society have come so far, and yet we’re battling the same bigotry – the homo- and trans- and bi-phobia, the same racism and poverty and classism that has allowed this dumb fucking syndrome to fester and spread for 40+ years. Would they be proud of who WE are, this collective of folks who want to preserve this history of print and all of the people whose stories and lives are spilled out among the pages because they taught us that we and our love and our bodies and our pleasure is worth fighting for?

I would like to believe so, but some days I really just don’t know.

xoMilo

International Zine Month 2023!

July 3, 2023July 3, 2023QZAP

Happy International Zine Month! Every year our friend Alex Wrekk, who started IZM, puts out a list of daily activities for the month of July that are zine related. This year’s poster was designed in collaboration with their pal Zineville and their mascot Mr Chompy.

Below is the text of the poster, which can be downloaded from here. Have a very happy and safe IZM! Make cool zines and share them! Send us LGBTQ+ zines to include in the archive!

What is a zine? Make a definition in your own words and share it.
Zine Rewind! Re-read your favorite zines, and share why you love them so!
Cook 1 recipe or complete 1 DIY project found in a zine!
AmeriZine Day! Explore marginalized voices in the Americas. Buy, share, and read zines that celebrate racial justice and zines written by BIPOC (Black Indigenous and People of Color) from the Americas.
Try a new way if folding a 1 page zine or, create your own.
Zine Pride Day! Explore LGBTOIA+ zines! Вuy, share, & read zines by people of marginalized sexual orientations and gender identities. Check out the Queer Zine Archive Project (HEY, That’s US 😀 )
What’s a zine distro? Educate ourself of what zine distros are, how they operate, and how they pick zines to carry. Support a distro near you!
Look into upcoming zines in events in real life or virtual events that you can attend! When else are you going to be able to attend a zine event in a different city or even country for free?
Buy direct! Do you sell zines online? Update your shop and post a link to it online. Or Buy directly from someone who posts a link to their shop.
RPG zines are a blast!! Find or make your own role play adventure zine!
Lucky #13: This was the zine superstition that WE made up in 2021!
International Zine Day! Read a zine from a country different from your own.
ZineWiki Day! It’s a wiki just for zines! Add to or update listings to the new and improved zinewiki.com
Make up a zine superstition and share it (skip the 13th issue? Spin 3 times to prevent copier jams? Your best friend reads your zine first?)
ValenZines Day! Give yourself some zine love! • read zines in a bubble bath? Buy some new scissors? Let your zine friends know you care about them.
Free Zine Day! Offer your zine for free online or –if it’s safe to do so where you are – leave zines in public places for strangers to find and enjoy.
Make a list of reasons you love zines and share your list with others!
Make a flyer for yourzine to trade, send out with zine orders & trades.
Zine Trade Day! Ask someone to trade or swap zines with you.
Zine Distro Appreciation Day! Tell people about/order from a zine distro.
Talk about a thing you learned in a zine.”I once read in a zine that…”
Check out YouTube channels & TikTok creators about zines.
Zine Library Day! Search for a zine library in your area and make plans to go someday or contact them about how to include your zine in their collection.
Tell 5 people about zines… The more the merrier!
Teach yourself a new zine skill. Extra points for using a tool you never have before!
Make a zine for a non-profit cause!
Organize your zine collection. Post a SHELFIE online.
Ask a zine friend if they would like to do a split zine or collaboration.
Read or create a mini-comic zine
Write out a list of zine ideas and use a random way of selecting one to make! (D20 dice work great, but get creative!)
Write a letter or online post about your #IZM2023 experience!
HallowZine! Remember zines and zinesters that are no longer with us.

Throughout the month bonuses:
– Read a zine a day
– Do the 24 Hour Zine Thing (make a zine to your skill level in 24 hours)

Black Lesbians in the 70s and Before

June 19, 2023June 21, 2023QZAP

Happy Juneteenth everyone! For those who don’t know, Juneteenth is a new federal holiday here in the United States, but has been celebrated by African-Americans since 1866. It commemorates the enforced end of slavery in Texas after the Civil War, as Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation (issued in 1863, during the height of the war) was limited to states under Union control. Texas, being so far from the rest of the Union and the war, did not have access to the Emancipation and white people in power actively kept the Emancipation Proclamation from enslaved people and African-Americans in general. The holiday takes place on the anniversary of the Union troops arriving in Galveston, Texas and informing everyone that the enslaved people were now free. Since then, this day has been celebrated by African-Americans across the country and became a federal holiday in 2021. If you would like to learn more about Juneteenth from the perspective of African-American scholarship, we recommend looking to the National Museum of African American History & Culture’s online Juneteenth exhibit. To celebrate over here at QZAP, today’s Zine of the Gay is Black Lesbians in the 70s and Before – An At Home Tour At The Lesbian Herstory Archives.

Originally made for the Lesbians in the 70s conference held by the CUNY Graduate Center in 2010, this zine is a curated look at the black-focused records in the Lesbian Herstory Archives by prominent archivist, librarian, zinester, and lesbian Shawn(ta) Smith-Cruz. It’s filled to the brim with newspaper clippings, scans of books and magazines, the records of activist groups, pieces of archival finding aids, academic papers, conference proceedings, calls for writing to academic and creative publications, event flyers, quotes, and notes from Shawn(ta). The zine being made up of collages and notes from Shawn(ta) makes reading it feel like you’re the one in the archive doing research, creating piles of papers and notes around you while you work.

The records include stories of protests against the arrest of black lesbians defending themselves from assault, statements made in the creation of alternative spaces for black lesbians, definitions of Butches, and most importantly the experiences of black lesbians, many focused on the difficulty of having multiple minority identities. A particularly powerful quote from the zine reads:

We will continue to demand our right to exist as productive, free, equal, black, gay beautiful women… There is a place for us in this society, and we will proudly take it at all costs. Even if it means breaking off from our so-called liberal white sisters and brothers, so-called liberal gay sisters and brothers, so-called liberal black sisters and brothers. Get-it-together, because we are.

-Elandria V. Henderson, 1971

After the records from the archive, the zine gives us records of the archive, including collecting policies, directions on how to create your own special collection, copyright laws, and donor agreement forms. After this section is a fun list readers can write in of “Stuff I’m Gonna Donate to the Archives.” The zine ends with Shawn(ta)’s contact information and a note to readers that they should schedule a consultation and create their own special collections. She says, “We’ll have tea/coffee… it’ll be fun!”

We highly recommend reading this playful yet powerful zine as a part of your Juneteenth celebrations this year, or to connect with this important, often overlooked, history any time of year.

Kit Gorton is a current intern at QZAP and graduate student at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in library science and English, with focuses on archives and media studies. A rather queer Hobbit, Kit is most often seen collecting things (such as leaves, rocks, books and the like) or doting on their cat, Good Omens Written in Collaboration by Neil Gaiman and Sir Terry Pratchett.

U.S. Kweer Corps

June 16, 2023June 16, 2023QZAP

Keeping things radical, today’s Zine of the Gay is U.S. Kweer Corps by friend of the archive Hank Thigpen. Starting in July 2000 and continuing through the early 2000s, Kweer Corps were shorter digests focused on the queer punk scene Hank was observing in Florida. In our archive we have issues #1, #2, #9, and #10.

Kweer Corps #1 includes the Kweer Corps Manifesto, a statement of the issues Hank sees in the punk scene and with queer people. A majority of these issues revolve around the lack of revolutionary spirit in punks and queer people who had been the ones ready to fight for revolution in the past. Hank declares real punk dead, as current punks are more focused on fashion statements and mistreating women at shows than any real political movement, and how other genres of music enjoyed by queer people lack action and purpose. Hank reminds readers that “queers helped create early punk… and kept themselves in every scene and movement in between and STILL havent started fighting for the revolution we’ve been preaching this whole time.” He ends the manifesto with a call to action, saying:

Because I’m ready for MY goddam riot.

Because I cant be the only one.

For these, and for a hundred other day to day reasons, Im a part of the Kweer Corps.

Queer punks, unite to fight!

Hank follows this up in Kweer Corps #2 by talking about the loneliness he experiences as a queer punk, and how he sees other queers at the random punk show but nowhere else. We recommend you read this one for yourselves as the writing here is particularly striking, especially the line: “Straight edge kids and skinheads all know their brothers. Why don’t I know you?” Hank writes about the Kweer Corps as being an alternative to this loneliness that he suspects other queer radicals experience as well through the creation of a community of radical queers across the country.

We then jump to Kweer Corps #9, which starts by showing you how to reinforce a penny roll to add weight to your punches. This issue focuses on physical violence experienced by queer people, challenging what “Your parents told you from the beginning, “Ignore them and they’ll go away.”” Hank encourages hitting back when harassed or beaten up, saying “peaceful resistance doesn’t work against individual attacks.” He states:

I’m gonna take the knowledge that I will hit back and use it to make myself stronger. I’m gonna think of all the girls and boys who are too small to fight back and I’m gonna get one lick in for them, too.

Hank argues that through fighting back against bigoted, sexist actions, we can start a revolution, and ends the zine by saying, “Instant physical retribution for any attack. Queer punks fight back.”

Kweer Corps #10 is focused on the exclusion of and responses to the Michigan Women’s Music Fest, a festival that stopped in 2015 and only allowed women-born-women into the festival. Hank sees issue both with the exclusionary nature of the festival, and the trans-organized protests that form outside of the festival every year. He writes: “Here’s an idea – instead of spending all that time, energy, and money protesting against women who don’t feel comfortable with things they don’t understand, all to get into a music fest where people like Lucy Blue Trem-bleh headline, why not make our own fuckin weekend of music?” He argues that there are ample resources, a lack of loyalty among the younger women who go, and no monopoly on the performers, so why not? “If we can create our own gender expression, we should be able to create our own shows.” “With all the cute transfolk out there, I would say it’s gonna be her loss, right?”

My 2nd Lesbian Coloring Book

June 8, 2023June 9, 2023QZAP

As many of the zines we have focused on for the last three Zine of the Gays have been mostly text-based, we wanted to highlight some zines that were more art-focused, and what is more cooperative, comforting, and artistically rule-breaking than a coloring book?

My 2nd Lesbian Colouring Book was created by Sacred Feminine and actually comes from Toronto like our last zine, Shame on Pride!, just a year later in 2006. There is very little text in this zine, but the writing we do have is a request by the creators for completed works from the zine. They say:

We feel that the spirit of art, much like the spirit of sisterhood, is a co-operative one.

Joan Jett Coloring Page In exchange for the reader’s Sapphic graphics, they offer a “care package including herbal tea and a mix tape” which feels so perfectly lesbian it makes us all warm inside.

The coloring pages include queer women of the past and present who were famous across multiple fields, such as basketball player Sheryl Swoopes, musicians Madonna and Melissa Etheridge (who is pictured on the front cover), comedienne Lily Tomlin, writer Virgina Woolfe, and (actually genderqueer) activist Leslie Feinberg.

The zine ends with the statements “Sisterhood is Powerful!” and “Love is tender, knows no gender.” We hope that you carry these sentiments with you, and if you’re able to print the pages out, have fun coloring!

Shame on Pride!

June 6, 2023June 6, 2023QZAP

Even though this Zine of the Gay project is inspired by Pride month, we at QZAP want to make sure we look at Pride critically. Today’s Zine of the Gay is Shame on Pride! created by Abuzar in 2005. The original zine was created as a part of Queer Diversity, a community focused on the relationship of radical queers to (at the time) modern day Pride in Toronto. Though this zine is specifically focused on Pride Toronto from almost twenty years ago, the messages are still applicable and we encourage you, dear reader, to keep an eye out for racist, transphobic, sexist, or classist behavior at any Pride celebration you go to this month.

Before even giving a table of contents, the zine starts with newspaper clippings from the New York Post and New York Times recounting the Stonewall riots, reconnecting readers with the reason we have pride in the first place. After the table of contents, Abuzar addresses their readership:

Calling all Radical Queers, Trans People, Youth, Sex Workers, Poly People, Anti-Poverty Activists, & Allies:

Sick and tired of the main streaming of the “Gay Movement”?

Frustrated at being pushed out of and excluded from queer spaces?

Angry at getting kicked out of a queer community we helped create?

… If you’re a pissed off and unapologetic hooker, tranny, gender queer, radical, lived/worked on the streets, or an ally, it’s time to fight back!

They then follow what happened after Stonewall, as white gay people began to push down other sexual and gender minorities in order to assimilate into mainstream culture. Abuzar says that in their pursuit for mainstream acceptance, “It doesn’t matter how many of us are murdered, go missing, or find ourselves excluded, bashed, or beaten. The band plays on like the single minded machine that it was always meant to be.” Pride has now become another part of this single minded machine, becoming a co-opted event “that perpetuates homophobia, transphobia, racism, sexism, social classism, economic classism, polyphobia, bodyphobia, binary-dominance, sex negativity, erotophobia, ableism, ageism, anti-sexwork sentiment, systemic exclusion … in short, all of those issues that it was meant to address and fight.”

There are also other pieces within the zine that address Stonewall’s origins, the internal oppression in gay culture, and how “more acceptable” queer people “sic cops on “less acceptable” queer people at Pride.” There is also a piece on how the fight for gay marriage “dismisses and ignores the decades-long struggle of feminist movements to abolish or establish progressive alternatives to the marriage system imposed by governments and churches over previous centuries of gendered exploitation, colonization and oppression. Instead, the debate encourages non-heterosexual partners to identify the legitimacy and “equality” of their relationships as the ability for those partnerships to be “permitted” by the same legal and religious authorities which have historically dominated, exploited and excluded women from participation and decisionmaking [sic] roles.” These argumentative pieces all support the majority of the body of the zine, which is focused on alternative queer spaces at 2005 Pride Toronto.

The main point of this zine is that rather than just creating alternative spaces for queer people, we need to also actively resist the co-opting of queer spaces. The body of the zine highlights organizations offering alternative spaces and resisting the co-opting of Pride, with events such as Resist! Rovolt! Celebrate! held by Limp Fist to stand against the corporate sponsors of Pride, Whores And Dykes Unite! organized by the Sex Professionals of Canada which is a march supporting trans people, sex workers, natives, and other POC within the greater Dyke March (a politicized, corporation-free, queer alternative to Pride), as well as the events held by Queer Diversity called the Renegade Community Fair and the Protest Against The Cooptation of Pride, both of which looking to dissent against Pride in the community fair and parade. Abuzar writes about these events, saying:

We refuse to participate in Pride in a manner complicit with their oppression. We refuse to be tokenized by Pride and dissent against it’s marginalization of the queer community.

Hot Rods

June 3, 2023June 3, 2023QZAP

From the femme herbal transition of The Transgender Herb Garden, we are now transitioning (hehe wink wink) towards Hot Rods, a zine of health resources for “For Folks assigned a Female sex at birth who have strayed from that path” in Oregon. The zine was made by Gender Machine Works, a direct action group serving “female assigned, gender-variant” (or FAGV) people based in Portland, Oregon, and was published in 2002. This is the only zine we have in our digital collection made by Gender Machine Works.

Despite being written with a very specific audience in mind (FAGV people in Portland in 2002), this zine has a lot of incredibly useful, effectively timeless, information. This includes the effects of hormonal testosterone on the body, their information on routine healthcare procedures for AFAB individuals, how to check for breast cancer and do hormone injections safely, safe sex tips, and a wealth of other important knowledge for not just physical, but mental female assigned, gender-variant health.

From a use standpoint, the only downside is that a lot of the information they give is very area-specific and probably outdated. However, looking at it from a historical lens, it gives a lot of information about doctors, groups, and resources that may not be well-documented, making this zine a really important record in Portland queer history. They are also supportive of a multitude of gender identities and are incredibly open to a multitude of viewpoints regarding transitioning.

In a world where transgender healthcare rights are being taken away right in front of us, we feel it’s incredibly important to come together as a community, and know that despite everything we can support each other and find the cracks in the systems restricting us from getting essential care. We feel that this zine is a great example of the queer community doing just that.

The Transgender Herb Garden

June 1, 2023June 1, 2023QZAP

Hello ! This summer we once again have a cohort of interns working on several projects, one of which includes a month-long research and blogging project called Queer Zine of the Gay. We will be posting just about every other day for ‘Pride Month’ 2023 on a zine within our holdings, which will hopefully be new to even the most experienced zinesters. So join us on this journey through QZAP’s holdings 3-4 times a week, (usually Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) here on the QZAP blog! The first Queer Zine of the Gay is…

The Transgender Herb Garden cover The Transgender Herb Garden: an MtF guide to disconnecting oneself from big pharma by FlyingOtter is a cottagecore-anarchist zine focused on the use of herbs to help facilitate physical transition rather than relying on pharmaceutical companies. This zine was published in 2009 and upon some supplemental research seems to be one of the few zines made by FlyingOtter. This zine is a one-off, but is also held by other queer zine archives, so it must have circulated well.

FlyingOtter starts by addressing the fact that this is not medical advice, but is rather suggestions on herbs to eat for other MtF people that may help them appear more feminine as the herbs helped her. However, ze suggests that anyone can read this and get advice from it, as “trying different plants and foods will inform you about yourself”.

“As you take the time to sense how it makes you feel , how your body reacts, in its slightest movements and ways — as you come to know your own body, that is the key to transforming it, maintaining it, and healing it.”

Ze recommends eating the herbs raw, though teas also can be useful, as well as finding a good balance for how often you consume them. Ze also suggests switching up the herbs you’re eating, especially if you’re MtF, as “A bio-woman’s biology/hormones change throughout a month, no reason to not do the same.” Some of the herbs ze suggests include sage, fennel, and clover, which are all wonderful nonbinary names. FlyingOtter says that they won’t stimulate breast growth, but will help add fullness to the face and thighs, while helping create an hourglass figure.

Some other zines (page 8) cite this zine as purely anecdotal, which is true, but they also point out the information on transplanting the plants Ze does discuss is rather helpful. We also personally don’t mind how anecdotal the zine is. In reading it we get a much better sense of the person writing it, the environment and feeling that ze carries with zir than information on the plants ze suggests using. But that doesn’t mean we’re not learning anything from FlyingOtter. Ze very clearly has a lot of gardening knowledge, including information about the amount of nitrogen carried by certain seeds that will add to your soil, and where things should be planted depending upon use. Ze also advocates for community herb gardening with female bodied people, and breaking away from the machine of capitalism, which are easy to get behind.

One of the most interesting parts of the zine is where FlyingOtter discusses gender as a construct of capitalism, and looks forward to the day where there is no gender. Seeing this through their perspective we think is rather telling of where the queer community was in regards to nonbinary and agender genders in 2009, and we highly recommend reading it for yourself.

⚠️ ⚠️ Additional Advisory Note!!! If interested in using herbs similarly, lovely reader, you should consult with professional herbalists when embarking on using herbs in a medicinal or health-boosting capacity.

Author: QZAP